awfully busy show today. texas tenor, thank you. they're going to sing an original christmas song in the after the show show. >> tomorrow some of our great guests include u.s. army general ray orderno and allen west. >> and gloria gaynor. address the crushing debt facing our nation. appropriately snowing in washington. >> gray from washington up to new york. it is, good to be here. i'm martha maccallum. with or without a deal. house lawmakers will gop basically. that will leave americans more

than $17 trillion in debt. this deal may not do nearly enough. bill: it has to do a lot to debt that number. stuart varney, fox business network. good morning to you. my friend, how does this look to you. >> voters would go apoplectic if there was government shutdown. congress hears that loud and clearly. we will probably get a handshake budget deal today. now this deal will not shake the world by any means. there will be no entitlement reform. there will be no tax reform. there will be no significant deficit or debt reduction period. this is steady as she goes, just keep on going the way we're going now and don't rock the boat and no shutdown. bill: wonder if that could even pass in the house. we'll see. the headline underneath it is what for consumers? >> long suffering air travelers will take a big hit. bill: really? >> yes. it is proposed one of the small details in this deal, there is

likely a proposal to extract an extra $25.9 billion from air travelers over the next 10 years. eight billion of that would go to take care of security. 18 billion would go towards deficit reduction. but airline travelers who take the hit, bill. bill: didn't see that one coming. the president wants to extend unemployment benefits. is that a deal-maker or a deal-breaker? >> it could be a deal-breaker depending how hard the president pushes and how hard democrats push for it in the senate and in the house. at the moment, come january, 1.3 million people who are receiving unemployment benefits now will be cut off. the president wants to keep those unemployment benefits going. republicans do not want that to happen. it's a standoff. whether that become as deal-breaker remains to be seen. as to how far the president will push this point of view. there will be handshake deal today. bill: we'll see what come after

the handshake. see you at 9:20. we have some breaking news. stuart varney. martha: fox news alert. it is a race against time and frigid cold temperatures as search teams are scrambling to find a family lost in the remote nevada mountains. the couple and their four children went to the mountains to play in the snow and have not been seen since. william la jeunesse is live on the ongoing rescue search for them. william, what is the latest? >> reporter: right now, martha, temperatures are eight degrees below zero in the mountains for the second straight night. second straight night search teams came up empty for the two adults and four children. the area is north of reno. it is called seven troughs. it represents seven steep canyons. a popular camping and hiking area, about 7,000 feet elevation. the family is 235-year-old james

and. they went out sunday to play in the show. temperatures fell to 16 degrees below zero that night. multiple search-and-rescue teams, helicopters, fixed-wing are out there. they have infrared. they see body cold or temperatures at night. they're following dirt roads into the willed derness hoping they find the black roof of that jeep against the snow. the family they have they hope the sense to stay near the vehicle. >> best choice is to hit this as heavy as we can with aircraft. ground teams are basically waiting here, we launch them out as soon as they see anything. >> reporter: we spoke to the sheriff's office a moment ago. the fresh team went out a few moments ago. they will bring up fixed-wing aircraft as soon as we see dawn. martha? martha: what are the conditions out there currently, william? >> reporter: well they have some fresh snowy in some ways is good

and some ways is bad. temperatures as i said are already below zero. the high today will be 30. it will be in the low 20s next several hours. cell phone coverage is very spotty. it is possible they are already out of batteries. they were last scene by a rancher sunday afternoon. they have a rough idea where they are but they are already expanding the search. they don't know if the family has camping gear, any food, any water. so that is problematic. blowing wind can reduce the core body temperature because of windchill. the danger is for hypothermia, not just for adults but very young children. that's a problem. digging a snow cave can help. that can insulate them. they don't know if they have sense to do that but at this point they're hoping that these people have the good sense to stay with the vehicle. martha: yeah indeed. we don't know what kind of outdoor survival skills they have. as you point out we have seen cases where people were able to survive in a snow cave huddled together.

at this point we hope they listen to what your expert said, stay near the vehicle. because that would be the easiest thing for these aircraft to spot at this point. william, thank you. obviously we'll stay on this throughout. hopefully we get good news. thanks, william. ♪ bill: tens of thousands likely did not even feel the cold and rain in johannesburg as they gathered to pay tribute to nelson mandela. the antiapartheid leader died at the age of 95. president obama speaking at the event, praising mandela for changing the world. >> the world thanks you for sharing nelson mandela with us. his struggle was your struggle. his try up was your triumph. your dignity and your hope found

expression in his life and your freedom, your democracy is his legacy. bill: greg palkot, streaming live in johannesburg, south africa. what impressed and what did people tell you impressed them, today? >> reporter: we were there. we can confirm it was cold, it was wet but it was also moving. it was described as the biggest -- [inaudible] tens of thousands of south africans marking the passing of -- bill: all right. our apologies to our viewers at home. that is really unfortunate. this is part of videotape that was rolling a bit earlier today when most of us were sleeping in the u.s., they were celebrating life of an ma, while he lived one heck of a life in south africa and president's words earlier today. also there was a moment that a lot of people frankly will be talking about.

we'll talk about that a bit later this morning. that was a handshake that took place between the u.s. president and raul castro. here is the moment as president obama was making his way to the lecturn to deliver his remarks in johannesburg and that is the moment with castro. so we'll talk a bit more about that later today. also reflecting in the life of mandela, this is a series of events that will take place throughout south africa, not just today and over this past weekend but for several days to come still. martha: indeed. we'll watch it throughout. how about this news today? george zimmerman is back in the spotlight. he is facing charges that he attacked his girlfriend last month. you may remember that. wait until you hear what the girlfriend is saying now. bill: secretary of state john kerry on the hot seat today. lawmakers have some tough questions about this iran deal. the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee will be asking those questions but first he will talk to us live in just a couple minutes. martha: let it snow, bill. check it out. it is everywhere. a massive storm blanketing the

eastern seaboard, new york, new jersey, baltimore, all in the cross-hairs. it is raining down in georgia where our friend are down there as well. we're live in the extreme weather center when we come back.

martha: george zimmerman's girlfriend is asking a florida judge to drop all the charges against him. zimmerman was arrested last month after his girlfriend called 911 told them he pointed a gun at her and physically assaulted her. the girlfriend written to the court that her statements were misrepresented and she wants him cleared of any wrongdoing. weird twist in this story. prosecutors may still pursue the case despite the girl's request which would be difficult. bill: john kerry is on the hot seat in a matter of hours. the secretary of state the only witness at a congressional hearing that will exam an controversy aol nuclear deal that has been cut with iran. there are questions whether or not this deal is falling apart.

california congressman ed royce, chairman of the foreign affairs committee and my guest now. sir, good morning to you and welcome back to "america's newsroom." >> good morning, bill. bill: what is your first question? >> our first question will be the comments made by the foreign minister of iran yesterday. even though the agreement, even though the agreement says the plutonium factory that you know is at iraq is the site of this, it is supposed to be halted, construction is supposed to be halted, they will continue construction. then on top of it, iranian officials said they are going to build more of these plutonium bomb-making factories. we can argue about enrichment. as you know we think it is foolish to give them the right to enrich, in terms of the plutonium program it would be so irresponsible for us not to point out that this is already in the written interim agreement. what in the world does the, does the foreign minister mean saying that they're going to continue construction on that site?

bill: now pointed question. did the administration know the iranians would take that position before the talks were concluded in geneva? >> i don't think they knew that but here's the point. regardless of what rowhani or his foreign ministers say, remember, rowhani on saturday, in front of a group of students, some of whom were yelling, these militia were yessing, death to america during the program, said that the centrifuges would never stop spinning. so regardless of the provocation on the iranian side, does this mean the administration is going to ignore this, is go going to continue unravel sanctions, reboot the economy in iran and eventually allow them undetectable breakout capability for their nuclear program. bill: we'll see how secretary kerry answer that is. three specific questions for you right now. why does the administration want a deal with tehran? >> well, i think the administration frankly never supported sanctions.

clearly our approach in congress, we were ratcheting them up. as you know my bill was over in the senate which would have probably imploded the economy in iran or given the ayatollah a choice between true compromise on his program or economic collapse. i think they wanted to avoid that hard consequence of confrontation. so they, they chose to try to negotiate this. bill: all right. second question. >> not in a way i think is verifiable. go ahead. bill: can congress torpedo the deal? >> we don't want to torpedo the deal. we want to strengthen the deal in this sense, bill. we have sanctions legislation in the senate, bipartisan support, democrats and republicans frankly will put the pressure in place a hammer, if you will, which we say, look, if you violate this interim agreement, this hammer will come down in six months and the types of sanctions you will be looking at are the types of sanctions the world put on south africa.

bill: is that something that the president would have to sign? >> no. bill: already we're hearing some give from democrats on the senate side. they talk kind of like the way you're talking frankly. >> the president can veto that but remember, before we have passed sanctions legislation over presidential vetoes. one example i would give you is the sanctions on south africa. if you recall, that's what, by the way, got mandela out of prison. got an election and an end to apartheid regime and got south africa to give up its nuclear weapon. the fact that congress in a bipartisan support from gingrich and house republicans to the democrats, overrode a presidential veto and put sanctions on south africa. we could do the same thing here on iran with these types of tough sanctions. the bill that's in the senate right now, the administration obviously does not want to ratchet up the pressure and my concern here is now that the

sanctions are being lessen, they're largely psychological as well as legal. you see headlines in the paper about all the business interests now trying to do business in iran. i mean the reason, the only reason they would compromise is tough pressure. so we would better, we better have something there, by way of hammer, by way of legislation, if you do not comply with any interim agreement, this is going to come down hard. bill: does appear that these sanctions have worked and that brought them to the table. third question, final question. there are those who say you're just talking tough and there is no way that congress will intervene with the deal that is going on between tehran and washington. what would you say to them? >> i would say that in the face of opposition from this administration we passed my legislation, my and eliot engel's legislation out of the house with a vote of 400-20. so if in the senate we can get an agreement up, if we can get

this legislation up, on to the floor, then i think we have the ability to follow through with some very, very important additional leverage and pressure on the regime. what remains to be seen is whether the leader there, harry reid, allows a vote on the house floor. if it comes up for a vote -- bill: he appears a little squishy right now. yes or no, does he do it? >> we don't know yet. that's why i think the hearing today is going to help. i think will help build pressure. bill: we'll watch from here. thank you, ed royce, see you at 1:00 with the hearing on iran with john kerry. martha: as the song goes, let it know, let it snow. that is what it is doing. commuters can expect a rough ride in parts of the northeast. maria molina will join us to tell us what we're in for. bill: a busy day. president obama said if you like your health care plan. that was not true. he said if you like your doctor,

you can keep your doctor. that isn't true either. what about your prescription medication? new details that show you may get to keep those either. >> this could cost patients with special condition, patients with special drugs, a lot of money, literally tens of thousands of dollars a year.

bill: the people of the families of sandy hook and newtown, connecticut, asking the media for privacy this week as they mark one year since the massacre at sandy hook elementary there. >> we ask that you understand that each of us, each family, is unique in our own experiences following this tragedy and we each have our own voice and perspective. bill: the media's responded to that request and they say they will honor that request. there will not be any public memorials.

families instead encouraging people to honor the victims with acts of kindness or volunteering. 20 children, most of them first-graders, six adults, many of them teachers, were all shot and killed inside the elementary school on the 14th of december last year, which will hit this year coming up on the weekend. martha: very, very hard anniversary for them. the best thing we can do is keep them in our thoughts and prayers. that's it. bill: amen to that. martha: amen to that. all right a fox news alert now. as extreme weather comes into the east coast. a powerful winter storm here. look at this scene. this is mclain, virginia. entire streets littered with downed utility poles and debris. that is no fun. residents say it's a mess out there. >> the tree fell at the end of the street and blocked the entire street. took down one power pole which then took down another which took down the third. >> i'm in there with my wife. our two twin newborns and my

two-year-old daughter. what is keeping us all warm and toasty is wood-burning stove. martha: they will have busy time of it. winter warnings are in effect in multiple cities, including, washington, philadelphia, wilmington, delaware. you can see the big green blob up and down the east coast. you can see out our window, sixth avenue, radio city music. that is what it looks like. temperatures out there are very low across the country unless you're lucky to be in florida where it is 71 degrees today. maria molina is live in the fox weather center. hi, maria. >> 71 degrees in tampa. not bad, right? we have an update on the winter storm warnings. they have been allowed to expire a few minutes ago. the winter storm warnings expired for parts of d.c. and also the baltimore area. those two cities no longer under winter storm warning but under winter advisory as additional one to three inches of snow can

fall across the areas. that is because we do have some of the heavier snowfall rates lifting northwards. we're seeing heavier snow falling across parts of philadelphia and across the new york city area. worst of the storm should be over for the d.c. area within the next several hours. but we are expecting significant accumulations, three to six inches of snow forecast across areas just west of d.c. some of those areas still under warning. philadelphia you could see three to six inches as well. for new york city, two to four inches of snow forecast out here. we are under a winter weather advisory. anywhere from tennessee all the way up to parts of southeastern massachusetts. so timing on the storm system, by early this afternoon, we do think the snow will be over for d.c. still snowing slightly across parts of philadelphia, new york city. you will still see some of the snow but the worst of it coming to an end. in boston that snow is going to start to pick up. out there by the way, across southeastern new england, not a

whole lot of snow. one or two inches forecast for the city of boston. eventually tomorrow the snow system south of here. we'll see lake-effect snow and quite significant at times. ontario, they could pick up over a foot of snow coming up next 48 hours. current windchill temperatures, martha, you showed us current temperatures this is what it feels like when people head out the door. it feels like 17 degrees below zero in minneapolis. feels like eight below in chicago. dangerously cold windchills out here. we have a number of advisories or warnings in effect due to how hold it is. in the city of denver as we head out the door, feels like four degrees as we head out this morning. >> that is chilly. maria, thank you very much. bill: man. martha: it's cold. bill: staying in the mountains out there in the west, like 10 degrees below zero. martha: thanks for all the snow. no one will be able to do any skiing, right? bill: stay indoors. one of the best parts of the game, tailgate party. there are strict new limits on

the super bowl tailgate party on new york/new jersey super bowl. we'll tell you. martha: fun killers out there. republicans hitting back targets democrats up for re-election, with pointed ad that is rollout on obamacare this is just the beginning. you will see a ton the coming months. we'll look at them. will the strategy work. bob beckel is here. >> those receiving cancellation letters today may be in their best interest long term to be canceled. >> obama and rahal. they sound the same because they are the same.

bill: here we go big name in business about to get a bit bigger. general motors according to associated press about to name the company's first ceo. mary berra, the government product -- the product chief. as the u.s. government sells final shares in general motors and take as nice $10 billion loss. how did that work out for you? mary barra. martha: interesting. using their own words against them the republican party launching a new round of obamacare radio at. they're coming out today, targeting vulnerable democrats up for re-election by tying them to president obama's memorable health care law promise. listen to what west virginia voters are hearing now about congressman nick rahall. >> think barack obama and nick rahall are different?

listen to this. >> if you look your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. >> rahall said it too. >> those who like what they have will be able to keep it. >> the same broken promise, now almost 9,000 west virginians are losing health coverage. martha: that voiceover guy never goes out of business. bob beckel, former democratic campaign manager and co-host of "the five." welcome. these ads pretty much write themselves. >> i used to be in the business. i used that guy's voice on ads. martha: almost "saturday night live" fake ads. >> not surprising. not complicated. you use something like that as material they have got. i can understand why they're doing it. the question will this be the same, awfully early to be doing ads. this far out you have got a year. question, is it waste of money? they don't have as much money in the that committee as democrats have in theirs. martha: carol shea-porter in new

hampshire also considered vulnerable and subject to the same sort of campaign they will run up there. these are coming from the nrcc. scott peters in california, considered vulnerable will be subjected to ads according to the piece that ran in powe lit key today. one of my questions, could it backfire? are republicans jumping the gun on this? are they playing it well? if you were advising them would you say that? >> if i had enough money to sustain something like this for a period of time probably i would, the thing they have to be careful of, we tooked about this before, take mentality of an election year from now and project it from this point forward. and is the affordable care act going to be in this kind of trouble? if it is, then they don't even have to run these ads. probably will win a lot of seats. i think they better be careful because they set expectations so low for the affordable care act, if they exceed that, that is to say if the act exceeds itself, more people sign up, it will not

be that big of an issue. when you go into the campaign season with one issue, that is what they really have using health care. worked in 2010. the question that it can it work again and i'm not so sure it can. martha: that is a point you and i discussed before. sort of the parallel of the economy in the last presidential election. republicans were just constantly hammering how bad the economy was. then people sort of looked up on election day, it is not, it is a little better than terrible. so i think i'm growing to stick with the guy who is in charge already. if they look up and say, you know what? i thought i would lose my doctor and my plan and pharmaceuticals but turned out only lost my pharmaceuticals and plan got my doctor, it was a little better than projected to be. >> remember in 2012, the other variable was do i want to vote for mitt romney? you will have to have, in a situation like this where you have no candidate yet, and airwaves free to attack one person that can have little bit of an impact.

you will be up against somebody. you have to leave on the side of road, 20, 40, years, whatever been, seems he was around forever, somebody has got to run against him. that's got to be a choice. and i'm not so sure you can do it just on basis of this. martha: almost 2014 now. a lot of this stuff will come home to roost over the course of this next year. if you had the outlook right now, do you think a lot of these states will turn over because of health care plan? >> you know the path to, for political analysts projecting this far out, there is a lot of dead bodies on side of the road. i will put it this way. if the health care act falls apart as republicans think it will and millions of people are thrown out, yeah, you will see a lot of turnover but i don't think it is going to be this bad. the economy is getting better and better. they better be careful tying themselves to one issue. they don't have issue of their own. that is dangerous. i don't like this, no, no.

what is my alternative? they don't have an alternative. >> i want to get thoughts on john podesta announced this morning returning to the white house. said to be brought in by dennis plaque done gnaw, chief of staff. what does that mean? >> when the white house is in trouble they tend to move seats around. podesta is very good. i'm sure they can add a lot to discussions. in the end boils down to one thing, and that is barack obama. i don't think any one staff person going to change the obvious situation what it is. it is not as if there is just a communication problem here. you've got a policy problem and a president who has not changed all that much since he was elected. so i don't think one staff -- it is typical. you know, happens in white houses all the time and the bottom line is it doesn't really change that much and nobody seems to learn from history about that. martha: gibbs and axelrod have been calling for people to be fired. they're on outside ring in terms of seats they have right now. this may be coming from them.

>> other thing i say, when you say things like that, people out there in america are not waking up this morning saying gee, that podesta guy will make all the difference in the world. martha: just you and i. >> that's it. martha: sigh you later. see you tonight on "the five." >> okay. bill: super bowl preparations underway in new york/new jersey. for true football fans, this may sting a bit. game officials says you will not be allowed to tailgate. tailgating is banned, beckel. unless you're comfortable grilling in the drivers's seat. >> you will be allowed to have food in your car and have drink in your car and provided that you're within the boundaries of a single parking space, you will be able to eat or drink right next to your car. bill: like having an mre. martha: exactly. bill: game officials releasing details how 80,000 will get to the stadium. park something severely limited. they're urging people to take buses out of manhattan and parts

of new jersey. they may bus in 6 0, 70,000 people for the game. martha: people will rent rvs, anything they can call a vehicle, right, they can cook inside of and basically do the tailgate party that way. what is the deal? why can't you have a tailgate problem? bill: problem with rv parking pass will be limited. they say you can't get into the parking lot. here is the catch, i'm not a big tailgater. are you? martha: huge, absolutely luge. bill: at med life stadium for a giants game, jets game, it goes on and on and on. martha: absolutely. the best part. bill: for most people. martha: this is not going to stand. this is not good. it will make new jersey look bad. you have to get the tailgate back. we'll work on that, i promise, folks. how about this question, could your medication be the next shoe to drop what you might lose under obamacare? a disturbing warning today to tell you about from doctors. bill: a congressman tricked into falling for a ponzi scheme? he lost a fortune, millions.

and guess who he is blaming? the outspoken lawmaker is not mincing words. this is what he had to say about the debate over obamacare and republicans. >> if you get sick, america, the republican health care plan is this. die quickly! that's right. the republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick.

martha: get this. a florida democrat has become the victim of a huge ponzi scheme. according to court documents congressman alan grayson, who you probably remember well, lost $18 million in a scheme that was devised by a long-time business associate. hmmm, with friend like that right? grayson apparently turned over millions of stocks as collateral for a loan but the man who was supposed to be investing grayson's money on his behalf used it to fund his lavish lifestyle. chapman has been arrested and

charged. grayson said he had no reason to believe chapman was a fraud. bill: hmmm. >> if you like your health care plan, you will an able to keep your health care plan, period. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. bill: turns out that wasn't true. can't necessarily keep your doctor or your plan. how about your medication, can you keep that? maybe not. there is former medicare policy advisor on "the kelly file" with this warning. >> the list of drugs that the plans cover in many cases aren't very long and if the drugs aren't covered, you're on your own. you basically have to pay for it entirely out-of-pocket. the money spent in the drugs, doesn't count against out-of-pocket limits and won't count against deductible. this would cost patients who need specialty drugs literally tens of thousands of dollars a year. bill: byron york, "washington examiner," chief political

correspondent and fox news contributor. good morning to you let haste go to the facts first. is what he saying true. >> it is. first higher premiums and higher deductibles and narrower doctor networks and prescription drugs. obamacare sets up a situation where the health plans set up plans called formularies a list of drugs they will cover. the law specify they have to cover at least one drugs in zillions of categories. federal list of approved drugs as you imagine is quite long. doesn't cover all the drugs in any particular category. and what would cap hayes, millions of people could be on medication right now that is not covered in the formulary of the of the plan they choose. it gets really bureaucratic at this point. if you are on a drug that is not covered you have option of appealing to the centers for medicare, medicaid services and that could take months, if you lose the appeal you have to pay for the whole thing out of your

pocket. bill: wow. last part, continue that. >> yeah. bill: if the drug is not on the list you pay out-of-pocket? >> that is absolutely right. scott gottlieb, the expert we just heard is correct. it will not apply to your deductible. we already know people are facing deductibles of 5, 7500, $12,000. they're facing huge deductibles. so this could be a real surprise for a lot of people. here's something else that is very important. you listen to this, you think, gee, i need to find out whether the drugs i need are covered under the health plan before i choose one. well most of the formularies are not listed on the website that people are shopping for coverage. bill: why would that be? >> well, just hasn't happened yet. the websites are really not fully together as you know. it has been a huge news story for couple months now. bill: yeah. >> and they're complete list that is people can go by are not available or are very difficult to find on a lot of health care websites. bill: byron, did we know this?

did we know this was comeing? did we know this was baked into the law? >> this all goes back to the famous nancy pelosi quote where you have to pass the bill to find out what is in it. you have to implement the bill to find out what is in it. some is in the law. some is in the regulations written by the obama administration after the administration after the bill was signed into law in march of 2010 but nobody really confronts and knows about until it begins to happen in their lives. bill: why would you craft something like that? what would be the means to the end to have that situation? >> it is to save money. it's a way for obamacare to pay for some of the mandated benefits that people didn't used to have like mental health care coverage, that were not in a lot of policies but are now mandated by the federal government to be in the policies. they have to save money somewhere and restricting prescription drugs is one of the ways they plan. bill: you have to skimp in some areas, right? that is the premise that you're describing there? >> right. bill: is that the same premise for the doctor or doctors that

you may or may not have access to? >> oh, yeah. i mean we've seen a lot, certainly in medicaid. obamacare depend a lot on medicaid expansion. they are actually cutting the money paid to doctors who see patient the under medicaid. so much that we've seen one report in the "washington examiner" that 70% of the doctors in california aren't going to take medicaid patients. so you will have a large number of new patients and fewer doctors to see them. that is what is going to happen here. bill: byron, tick through this, if you like your plan you keep your plan, maybe not. if you like your doctor, keep your doctor. maybe not. >> no. bill: like your medicine, medicine works for you maybe you keep it but you pay for it out-of-pocket. that goes back to what dr. dr. ezekiel emanuel said with chris wallace. you will have you can keep your doctor you but you might have to pay for it. >> that was the most revealing where chris wallace pressed emanuel on the issue and emanuel

said the president didn't promise any doctor you want ited. if you want your doctor you can pay for it. that is true anywhere in the world. innings in health service in britain if you want your doctor you can have it but you -- bill: aka cash. >> exactly. bill: what do you think the effect of this is on voters on everyday americans once they continue to peel back the layers? >> you know, i don't think we've seen the full political effect of obama kiar at all because we've seen what has happened in the individual markets. we've seen that roiling controversy taken place there we haven't seen what is really happening in the small group market which should be happening next six months to a year. we haven't seen what is happening when the subsidies start flowing on january 1st. we haven't seen what is happening in the prescription drug thing. there are lots of things that could affect the political system both ways. so perhaps pro-obamacare, many anti-obama kiar that haven't happened yet. hard to predict. bill: byron york. if you like your medicine you

keep your medicine maybe not or pay for it in terms of cash. >> thank you, bill. bill: you were talking to bob beckel a couple moments ago. really interesting as we watch all the stories develop after january 1, 2014. toward the end of 2014, employer mandate kicks in. if all these people lined up on insurance through their jobs we'll see how many of them are able to keep it or not coming up. martha: you guys talked about. it is turning into a huge divide. if you can afford to like your doctor and like your drugs and like your plan you can keep it. but it will separate the haves from have-nots in a huge way this plan it appears. how about this? government motors, remember what we called gm during the bailout period, that situation is no more. the treasury officially washed its hands of gm. no longer a shareholder but wait until you hear how much it cost you. >> we saved the auto industry. we've got gm plans to hire a thousand new workers right next door in chandler to make sure we're building some of the best

cars in the world right here in the united states of america. [applause]

bill: an official accused of bringing her city to the brink of bankruptcy has been found guilty of corruption. angela spaccia served as city manager for bell, california. prosecutors say she behave herself enormous raises, misappropriated millions of dollars in public money. her boss was former administrative officer robert rizzo. he pleaded no contest to similar charges back in october. he is expected to get up to 12 years behind bars. martha: snow is coming down out there, taking a live look outside of our office right here. looks very wet. it does not look very snowy at this point. it e it is starting to stick a

little around the edges. david lee miller is live in our beautiful city. he can tell us what it looking like from down there. hey, david lee. >> reporter: hi, martha. two weeks until the start of wouldn't irand once again the northeast is getting slammed with another storm. we are in square. take a look at traffic. you can see it is moving down 7th avenue at a pretty good clip despite the snow coming down. as you point out for the most part here the ground temperature is warmer than freezing and the snow is not yet sticking. we are told though that the salt spreaders are out on the street and that the sanitation department is going to have plows out once the snow hits about two inches of accumulation. but so far here in the heart of manhattan not much accumulation. let me tell you briefly about the rest of the northeast corridor. we're talking here mainly about the area from d.c. on the way up to boston. philadelphia really getting slammed again. the other day it got more than eight inches of snow. more snow than the city received

in all of last year. heavy snow today again in philadelphia. in new jersey i can tell you that the courthouses, u.s. courthouses are closed in newark, camden, trenton because of the snow. in washington, d.c. the schools are closed n delaware state offices are shut down today. the governor there says he is removing all non-essential state employees. he says it is the cautious thing to do. so we expect the snow to continue for the next few hours, ending sometime by mid-afternoon. the question now, martha, is, will the great white way literally live up to its name? at this hour not a lot of snow but, that could change in the next few hours. martha? martha: looks great out there. you have a great hat to cover the story in, david lee. thank you very much. we'll see you later, buddy. bill: we'll watch the storm move not just in new york but further south where they have been getting hammered. martha: it is winter, not quite, but december, christmas, that is

what we expect. bill: all eyes on the hill. lawmakers are expected to put final touches on a first real budget in two years. can they actually get this one done? we will have a live report on that. martha: the race against the clock. a frantic search for six people, four of them young children currently missing in subzero temperatures after going out to play in the snow. >> it is darn cold out here. we're putting everything in, it is the proverbial needle in the haystack.

martha: fox news alert, we may be near t is considered a success these days in washington, that's the first budget deal that we've seen in two with years, even longer depending on how you're counting it. but if you were hoping something would be done to rein in spending, you may be disappointed. welcome to a brand new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm more that maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. welcome back, martha, a grand

bargain it is not, right? house and senate negotiabilitiers putting the final touches on a deal, but no be real cuts on ticking time bomb of entitlements like social security and medicare. the big reason for that $17 billion in debt you see, mike emanuel's on the hill watching this inside. what is the latest on the possible deal, mike? >> reporter: well, bill, good morning. close but no final agreement just yet. patty murray and paul ryan have been putting the finishing touches on a deal that would fund the government for two years, it would also soften the blow of some of those automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. a senate republican budget conferee offered this prediction. >> seems to me we're going to have some deal that gives us 50-65 billion dollars more in discretionary spending to protect the troops and protect some research programs going forward. we're going to have to pay for

those. we're not just going to print the money up. the money's going to have to come from the, hopefully, the entitlement programs. >> reporter: republicans and those representing big military areas will like softening those defense cuts, democrats will like modifying some of those cuts to domestic priorities, but senator wicker and others are wondering how they're going to pay for it. bill: what have we heard from democrats? >> reporter: you get a sense this is obviously politically difficult to do, so they're trying to avoid adding pressure at this point to. harry reid just listed a budget agreement as art of his to-do list before the end of the year saying essentially that he wants to make sure there's an agreement that protects the economy and insures the government can continue the work of the people. another senate democrat expressed in this hope: >> a potential budget agreement coming from senator murray and congressman ryan, we have an opportunity to reduce these

impacts, to finally get to work replacing the harmful cuts from sequestration with a responsible plan that will grow our economy and create jobs. >> reporter: pressure's building, the calendar's becoming a factor because with, of course, the house is planning to leave on friday. so bottom line, a lot of people are looking at today as a possibility of an announcement of a deal. bill: keep us posted, okay? mike emanuel with the headlines from the hill. martha: we just want to get on the record with this, news just breaking moments ago, and it is that fox news reporter john winter does not need to return to colorado in the case of the aurora shooting and the notebooks that her reporting uncovered. the judgeed her to reveal her source, but she will not have to return to colorado to deal with that case. and we're going to effort judge napolitano, see if he can join us to see exactly what that means, but wanted to get that news to you as we got it here.

back to now what we were talking about just a moment ago, and that's the potential budget deal that could be unfolding in congress today. where do we go from here and why aren't we seeing some reform, some might ask, to actual government spending. let's bring in david drucker who watches these things for a living with the washington examiner. david, welcome. >> hey, good to be here. martha: good to have you with us. i think a lot of folks sort of watched this float under the radar, and now they're looking up and saying what's in this deal? what kind of budget did we get? >> well, we got the budget that was possible. nobody wants a government shutdown, and i think that's the primary driver behind both sides of the aisle, trying to find something they can get through the house, the republican house and the democratic senate. and i think if you want to know why there's not a grand bargain, why there are not some sort of attack on entitlement spending, why there's not a wholesale replacement of sequestration, it's because everybody tried to do what was possible, not what they wished they could do. martha: there's some reporting

that says paul ryan and patty murray who, you know, strange bed fellows, very different philosophies on how these things should get done. but that they had the space to do the deal because, you know, the whole world is focused on health care. do you think that's truesome. >> well, i hi that health care -- i think that health care created the motivation for them. it created the motivation for their colleagues to allow them to reach a deal that was possible. so normally what we'd have, martha, is republicans pushing for massive entitlement cuts, massive spending cuts, democrats pushing for a lot more spending, you know, for tax increases and all of that. and as we've seen over the past couple of years, they come to blows over it, they can't agree, we end up on the brink of a shutdown or default. and having gone through the government shutdown, republicans don't want to try that again, nor do they want to distract from the problem that is the affordable care act.

democrats don't want another shutdown because in terms of the president's leadership, i don't think that they necessarily believe he could take the hit. and so they'd like to get this thing off the table. so what health care has done is created an environment where getting a deal that's possible was preferable to getting no deal. martha: pay no attention to my left hand over here while my right hand is talking about the health care issue. you know, 24/7 basically. you know, but paul ryan, you know, in terms of his political future, obviously, he was a vice presidential candidate, are people going to look back at this deal and say why didn't you push for real spending cuts and what we got according to stuart varney in one aspect of this is increased airline taxes. >> i think anything's possible, and clearly in a republican primary i'm sure his opponents will attack him for that. but if you look at paul ryan, he was asking for entitlement reform and massive spending can cuts and things of that nature

long before any republican wanted to touch it. in fact, you could argue that everything conservatives are asking for in terms of the budget come from what ryan led them to believe was possible and doable and should be done. so he's definitely got a way to defend himself from that. whether he can depends on the political atmosphere of a race that may or may not happen. martha: very quickly, what do you think's going to happen now? is it going to go through? >> i'm really not sure. if this deal falls aparking lot, house republicans are going to put on the floor a 60-90 day continuing resolution, and sequestration levels of $967 with, and they'll -- billion, and they'll pass it by friday. martha: congress has gotten away with doing very little for a very long time. david drucker, thank you very much for filling in the blanks for us. good to have you here. >> hey, thank you. bill: breaking news from the world of business, general motors a shake-up. the associated press reporting that company will name mary

berra as its new ceos the first woman to ever head a major u.s. automaker, the treasury department announcing the sale of its last shares in gm. president obama calling the controversial bailout a success, as you remember, but taxpayers are on the hook for more than $10 billion. elizabeth mcdonald's on this, good morning. >> reporter: good to be with you, bill. bill: controversy growing even today. >> reporter: gm has about $27 billion in cash on the balance sheet. word on wall street is should the treasury have waited on this to get more of that cash back to taxpayers? in other words, charging gm a higher share price, getting a higher share price for the taxpayers' stake in gm. the other controversy too, bill, is the fact that while this bailout did save jobs, the bailout for gm and the automotive industry, it start ad under george w. bush. the controversy also is that gm is building more export production capacity in china.

in other words, jobs in china. so that's part of the controversy about this bailout. separate from the fact that bondholders did take a hit in the bailout for gm -- bill: so what the administration would argue, as you know, is that the gm bailout saved the economy and saved the auto industry. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, bill. in other words, we avoided a depression, that's the word from the treasury secretary. we saved midwest manufacturing. one estimate has that we saved 1.9 million jobs in both gm, chrysler and the automotive industry and also that it was, essentially, nearly $40 billion in tax revenues are now coming in the door if from those jobs saved. but the bailout costs could be higher than ten and a half billion, it could actually be 15 billion when you fold in the bail outs of the financing arm. bill: did we have to sell our shares? >> reporter: yeah, that this' the question, could we have stayed in it longer -- bill: i mean, that's the kind of deal i make, you know?

i always lose. thanks, elizabeth. >> reporter: same here. [laughter] bill: yeah. martha: all right. back to this for a moment, because there was a moment during today's memorial service for nelson mandela, president obama -- here he is shaking hands with some of the world leaders, that right there is the president of cuba, raul castro, the brother of fidel. the photo's gotten a lot of anticipation, and there's the president of brazil as he worked down the line. some say does this mean there's hopes of a thaw in relations with communist cuba? we're going to debate fair and balanced. send us a tweet on that, right? bill: it will definitely be one of those moments that you will remember. should the president have shaken hands with the cuban leader, raul castro. >> send us a tweet @bill hemmer. we're going to colate those and get them out to you later. it was a moment we all stopped and is said, whoa. martha: yeah -- bill: what just happened there? martha: i'm always fascinated

about whether or not it was a moment that was thought out? did they talk about this on the way, mr. president, these are the leaders who are going to be there, this is how they're going to be lined up, do you want to shake hands, or was it the kind of spontaneous moment where he shook a few hands and thinks about it later? bill: why or why not, too, if you agree or disagree on that. martha: this morning the agreement to ease iran's nuclear sanctions facing limited support out there, but it is still not a done deal, and it may be a bit on the rocks right now. how the white house is still trying to sell that balloon. bill: also a teenage hero risked his own life. she was killed over the weekend. the unbelievable and heartbreaking story there. martha: plus, bill o'reilly says that the republican party has a big problem. we're going to look at what he said, and we're going to ask herman cain if he thinks bill is right about this. >> there's a chairman of the rnc, but they don't have any

power. it's hard to get a unified message out. for example, president obama now is saying, hey, in obamacare i'm willing to compromise. if you have a better solution, you bring it to me, and we'll talk about it. that's what he's said a number of times. so, but the republican party's all over the place on obamacare, on immigration, on a number of issues.

bill: an indiana teenager hailed as a hero three years ago after saving two girls from drowning, shot dead in a tragic gun accident. 16-year-old aubrey peters was fatally shot over the weekend. she was with a group of friends inside a home, and one of them allegedly pulled out a handgun, pointed it at peters, and allegedly pulled the trigger. 20-year-old jacob travis mcdaniel charged with reckless homicide and pointing a firearm, both of those considered felonies. martha: a fox news alert, in the hot seat secretary of state john

kerry is can'ted to face some very -- expected to face some very tough questions this afternoon, 1:00 eastern time, over the nuclear deal with iran. meanwhile, new polls show that americans are not buying this agreement either. according to the "usa today"/pew poll, take a look, 32% of americans approve of this deal, 43% disapprove while 25% have no opinion. a lot of folks out there do not know what's going on with this issue. john bolton is former u.s. ambassador to the u.n., and he joins me now. good to have you here, as always. >> good morning, martha a. martha: i know you don't like this deal. what kind of questions do you expect to be asked today, and how on the ropes do you think it is? >> well, i think if you believe that the deal is intended to stop iran's nuclear weapons program, it's not going to succeed. so in that sense, it's very much on the ropes. and i think the iranians have seen that they can take advantage of the disunity

between europe and the united states to get what they really wanted out of these talks, which was relief from the economic sanctions. so that's one reason why it was never reasonable to expect that anything was going to come out of this. iran, on the one hand, the west on the other hand have completely different objectives, they're 180 degrees apart. and negotiations aren't going to bridge differences like that. martha: it's interesting, you know, one sort of subtext here is that perhaps the iranian leadership is trying to influence the american people with all of these sort of pr moves, just sort of kind of so much the water -- soften the waters a little bit to lower the aggressiveness of the united states against their country and, meanwhile, they will continue to, you know, enrich uranium and get as close as they can to nuclear power and nuclear weapons, perhaps. >> yeah, sure. that's exactly what the diplomatic and pr charm offensive has been about. and they've succeeded with the

obama administration. that old you cited tends to indicate perhaps the american public is more realistic about what this regime in tehran is up to. but i think the iranians have taken advantage of an acute psychological insight they had which is once you pass an inflection point on the sanctions, that is to say once you begin easing the sanctions, it's very hard to ratchet them back up again. and people -- the administration says, oh, but if iran doesn't comply with its obligations, the sanctions will come back up, don't count on it. number one, the geneva agreement's poorly written, it's kind of an embarrassment for the administration. it's filled with ambiguities and loopholes. and number two, the kind of compliance is not the mahmoud ahmadinejad style, it's going to be a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit in the other place, very hard to use that kind of grinding away of the terms of the agreement to get people

enthusiastic about going back to sanctions. iran understood that, i don't think the administration here did. martha: interesting point. you mentioned that poll. let's take a look at another one that's interesting as well when you talk about the effort to kind of soften the stance of the american people who, of course, have historically been very mistrustful of iran ever since the osage situation and before. -- hostage situation and before. iran's leaders seen as not serious about addressing nuclear concerns, 62% believe that iran is not serious about changing their stance on their progression towards weapons at all. >> well, it shows that 62% of the american people are smarter than barack obama. of course, the iranians are not going to give up their nuclear weapons program. they've been after it for almost 25 years, they're determined to have it. from their perspective, it's critical for iran's place in the middle east, for its place within islam, for its place in the world. do they wan relief from the sanctions? absolutely. why wouldn't anybody want relief

from the sanctions? but thai done -- they've done nothing to give up the continued progress on their nuclear program. and the notion that verification measures can somehow guarantee we'll know when iran is cheating really is the last resort of scoundrels. the iranians have driven a truck through the international effort to stop them from getting nuclear weapons. they're closer to breakout today than they ever have been today. martha: frighten thought. 1:00 today we're going to see what the questions are for secretary of state john kerry. john bolton, thank you, sir. bill: should be rather revealing. the president's tax man is heading to the hill, the hot seat in store for the president's pick to lead the irs as he faces a tough nomination test there. plus, there's a follow on this -- [gunfire] martha: wow. hear the screens inside the minivan, a video that shocked the country, a state trooper shooting at a minivan that was filled with kids. now he's fighting to get his job

back. hear what his attorney says about this whole thing. [gunfire]

bill: all right, fox news alert now, our colleague at foxnews.com, reporter jana winter, will not return to colorado to testify. you might recall she had been ordered to reveal sources for a bombshell story after the movie theater shooting in aurora, colorado, two summers ago. senior judicial analyst judge andrew napolitano to analyze this. good day to you. were you surprised that it went this way? >> yes, i was very surprised. you know, i consulted with jana. she is our friend and our colleague, and in my view, she was on the right side of the law. but before this decision today, the cases went the other way.

that is to say when a judge ordered a reporter to surrender her notes, the reporter either surrendered the notes or went to jail. this decision that came down just a few moments ago by the new york state court of appeals, bill, which is the highest state court in the state of new york, has firmly established the public policy of the state of new york as the most pro-first amendment, pro-freedom of speech policy in the united states of america. because the state of new york basically said to jana winter and to all of our colleagues in the journalism industry you can disregard a subpoena from a judge of another state if you are a new york journalist, because the new york law will protect you. bill: wow. it is a, that is significant. did she get lucky having that case in new york? how'd it get there in the first place? >> she works here with us at fox, she lives here, and she wrote her story from here. so by all equities, new york law

should alie. the folks in colorado -- apply. the folks in colorado who are the lawyers representing james holmes, the defendant in this maas murder, argued that because she wrote about a colorado event and because she twice visited colorado, that colorado law should apply. but when the new york court this morning applied new york law and said our law provides greater protection for freedom of speech than colorado law, it's a tremendous victory for the freedom of speech and and those who rely on freedom of speech to do our work. bill: i bet. is the case over? >> case is over. there's really no appeal from this, so it's an unexpected victory. bill: what did she report on that was considered to egregious in that case? >> she learned from some sources whom she declined to reveal that james holmes, the defendant in this mass murder, wrote images of himself committing a mass murder in a notebook and sent the notebook to his psychiatrist. a psychiatrist at the university

of colorado, so a state employeement now the implication is that the state was warned of the murder a week before beforehand and did nothing about it. when mr. holmes' lawyers learned of, they wanted to know who told you this, how did you learn about it. and she declined to tell them who. bill: it is breaking news now. judge, thanks, pleasure to have you on. >> pleasure, bill. be. bill: in such short order, too. martha: well, it could be the image from the mandela funeral talking today, president obama and cuba's ruler raul castro, a little handshake. should that have happened? we're getting a lot of interesting tweets on it right now, fair and balanced, coming up. bill: also, why scientists say an amazing discovery could change everything we know about the old red plain. martha: really? ♪ ♪

martha: we are back with this fox news alert. the scandal of the irs targeting tea party conservative groups is front anday on capitol him. president obama's pick to take over as irs commissioner faces a yuling confirmation -- grueling confirmation hearing today. carl cameron is live in washington with more on this for us. what do we expect today, karl? >> reporter: hi, martha. well, the hearing just got

started x they took a brief break. they're going to make sure everybody can get in to watch this. the man's name is john cos kin, and he is already facing some tough questions about the agency's admitted misconduct in targeting these conservative groups who found their applications denied and in some cases delayed in what was admitted wrongdoing by the irs. we can expect senators to demand a whole series of commitments to run the irs more fairly than recent history, there are a whole bunch of other issues including that the irs is working on rules to limit the political act visit of these -- activities of these groups. a lot of groups have popped up in the last few years on both sides of the political spectrum, and they're enjoying all the money, the access and the ability to participate. they don't want to be muzzled, some argue it's free speech, others say it's not up to the irs to make these judgments, it's up to the congress to write

the rules, so the irs ought to just get out of trying to deal with political ideology when it comes to tax-exempt status to do good works and can presumably keep their politics somewhat fair. martha: interesting. what about obamacare? that factors in here as well, does it not? >> oh, of course it does. there's a huge role. they're going to track who signs up and who doesn't, and anybody who doesn't is subject to a fine, they're going to have to deal with that. they'll also have to deal with subsidies if or people who go to the exchanges and need a particularly government subsidized health care program. after all, obamacare, affordable care act, is going to deal with a sixth of our economy, so it's got to get involved, koskinen's replacing danny werfel, back the day that the inspector general report came out. they called it misconduct, it was a scathing report. back then the president said he, too, was outraged and that the american people had justification in their fury, but in the last couple of days,

particularly in an interview over the weekend, mr. obama suggested some of this might have been overplayed and it's too bad when mistakes are made and it gets sort of seized on by the media which contradicts him and what folks are saying -- martha: sure does. he said he wanted to get to the bottom of it. carl, thank you very much. good to see you. >> reporter: you bet. ♪ ♪ bill: a moment at today's memorial service for nelson mandela that may speak volumes. president obama, before he spoke, stopping to shake hands with raul castro right there. the president of cuba, brother of fidel castro. what about this? you got to problem with that or not? jehmu greene, fox news contributor, michael graham, radio talk show host, here to debate this. good morning. michael, it happened before a lot of people, frankly, got up this morning. what did you read into it? >> well, i'm not reading into it. the president's job is to deal sometimes with unpleasant people, you know? saudi sheikhs, communist chinese, kanye west, you know?

so he's going to run into unsavory seem. going out of his way to do it particularly given the record of cuba and p given america's relationship of trying to promote freedom in cuba and having so many people from cuba like the family of marco rubio flee to america, i trust this will not be the image that lingers. i trust it will be of nelson mandela and his life, but there were other people he could have chatted up besides raul castro, a guy who runs a prison state. bill: michael, should he not have done it? >> i would say unless he was going to talk about, say, alan gross, the american who's been held there for four years now who wrote a letter last week, whose wife has been begging the president to take action, that would be something to chat about. what is he going to discuss, tips on how the cubans could improve the obamacare web site? bill: well, kanye west, he wasn't there, so he doesn't qualify. [laughter] jehmu, 50 years of an exceedingly frosty relationship. >> yes. and i think on a day like today

we should all ask ourselves what would nelson mandela do? it wasn't a conversation, it wasn't a diplomatic meeting, it was a handshake, and at the celebration of a man whose entire life was focused on bringing people together, who disagreed on very big issues, i think a handshake is the type of world we want to live in. you know, we can't also forget that there are so many families who have been separated by 90 miles of water. of it is not -- bill: that's very true, and a lot of those families would tell you it was the castros who separated them. >> well, i think where we are right now in looking at those families who are separated because our leaders have failed, it's not the fact that cubans and americans can't get along, our leadership has failed on this on both sides of the aisle. so if we can start with a handshake as a step in the right direction to maybe bring these

families back together, i think that that's a good thing. but again -- bill: >> -- thinking about what president obama said today, we all have to ask ourselves how have we taken the lessons from mandela and applied them to our own lives. bill: in the spirit of that answer, michael, a journalist earlier today saying this would have been disrespectful to mandela. would it have been? >> well, i mean, the problem -- the comparison is who is the mandela in the story? the mandelas are the political prisoners being held in cuba right now. the mandelas are the people suffering from human rights watch beatings, exile, incarceration, all at the hands of the cuban be regime which allows virtually no freedom and virtually no dissent. so we've got -- that's where the analogy falls apart. castro is the prison guard, he's not the mandela. bill: jehmu, aisle give you the final word. >> we have to remember when

mandela came out of prison after 27 years and became the first black president of south africa, he invited his prison guard to sit in the front row of his inauguration, and that is the spirit of nelson mandela that i think president obama was representing. he didn't have a long, drawn-out conversation. he shook the man's hand. and in this world, in this day and age, that should at least be what we can do. bill: jehmu, thank you for your thoughts, michael graham, thank you as well. we put this question out earlier -- not about kanye west, by the way. but we put it out earlier, pretty interesting responses. martha: yes, what do you think? should the president have shaken hands with raul castro? bill: albert writes: what would mr. romney have done or president reagan? martha: and dottie says just look at his body language, he was just working the rope line, had no idea who he was, according to dottie. bill: old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies

closer, a handshake is meaningless. martha: and finally, scott says: if you're trying to open the way for better relationships to promote a better life for cubans, yes. bill: lines are still open. well, they'll be open all day. martha: exactly. we're open all day. bill: we will get to those again a bit -- so is the republican party losing its sense of direction? bill o'reilly says the gop's become a ship without a rudder. listen to the pig man here. >> the democrats can point to relins and say all they do is say no, the party of no, because i haven't seen an obamacare republican, you know, a unified -- >> well, look -- bill: well, what does herman cain think about that statement? we'll ask him in a moment. martha: plus, protecting a centuries old holiday greeting, we're going to tell you where it is now legal to say merry christmas in public schools across the whole state. i wonder what state that is?

is it ohio? is it new jersey? i don't know, we'll find out. ♪ ♪

bill: this is the percent of the show where you sing. ♪ martha: that's me singing. you've got to sing the other part. you've got to be dean martin. bill: we've got this audio studio. baby, it's cold, all right, especially in ant arkty i ca. -145 fahrenheit, that's a new record on earth. 13 be 5. after reviewing satellite data, that's apparently 50 degrees

colder than anything ever seen before in alaska, siberia or even north dakota. but did you know that your fellow cold anchor attended the coldest nfl football game ever played? martha: really? bill: 73 degrees wind chill. martha: and where was this game? bill: january of '82, toward the end of the -- january of '82, super bowl. martha: you were tailgating so much, you can't remember -- bill: no, i had a brain freeze. cincinnati bengals against the san diego chargers. my eyelashes were frozen icicles. martha: did you see all those snowy games this weekend? awesome to watch. i love it. ♪ ♪ martha: bill o'reilly claiming that the republican party lacks both a strong leader or a unified message. >> there's no real central

authority in the republican party right now. it's balkanized. the republican party's all over the place on obamacare, on immigration, on a number of issues. now, a lot of people think that's healthy debate, and you get a better end result when you do have people debating, but in the meantime, democrats can point to republicans and say all they do is say no, the party of no. martha: herman cain, a former presidential candidate and a fox news contributor joins me now. good to have you here today. >> morning, martha. martha: so what do you think, is bill o'reilly right about that? >> i don't always agree with bill o'reilly, but this time i absolutely agree with bill o'reilly. let me just give you a few reasons. number one, last november the republicans were supposed to pick up some seats in the senate and maybe the house, and they didn't. they were supposed to win the presidency running against president obama's bad record. they didn't. here's the second reason, the democrats, they stick together even if they're wrong and even

if they lie. at least they all to can it consistently -- do it consistently. just look at obamacare as an example. and then the third reason the republican party does have a branding problem -- they've had one for years, and i have been screaming to the top of my voice to whoever will listen in the republican party, you need to fix it, there's a way to fix it. just look at the most recent example. the rnc sent out a flier to some of its members talking about potential 2016 presidential candidates. do you know what they had in common? they all have been on tv and in the media a lot, and they were all white. martha: uh-huh. >> where was alan west? where was dr. ben carson? and have they ruled out the possibility that i might consider another run? [laughter] that's part of their branding problem, martha. of. martha: i hear what you're

saying. a lot of folks look at what's going on with obamacare, and they say that for republicans, for your side this is a golden opportunity. but others look at it and say all thai doing is bashing the program -- they're doing is bashing the program. and granted, i think it's true there have have been proposals,e saw some of the ideas like cross-border purchasing and tort reform and all of that, but that doesn't really matter because i don't think the american people feel there is a cogent republican alternative. like what would you guys do? >> well, the media, the mainstream media, they have helped to keep silent a real alternative that's out there. it's h.r. 2300, and it was authored by representative tom pryce out of georgia. that legislation, that empower patients first act, has been around since 2009 when obamacare first came on the scene. but as you indicated, the republicans haven't consistently gotten behind it, and they

should. and if they consistently get behind it, then the message will start to -- martha: well, that goes exactly to what bill o'reilly says. but, you know, the classic discussion here is that there's the tea party side, and then there's the, you know, chris christie side that is more of a moderate future candidate, perhaps. and, you know, the party clearly is very torn on which way they should go. that's the biggest elephant in the room here, right? >> i would agree. and i think that to say that there's a tea party side and a chris christie side is a mischaracterization. conservatives and most republicans care about one thing: bold solutions. and that's part of the branding problem that the republican party has not done, propose bold solutions and everybody will rally around it. but i agree with bill, there's too much divisiveness within the republican party. martha: all right. i got to -- gotta go, but who do you think should be on that

list, the leader, the standard bearer and could be that person who could pull it all together? >> well, there isn't a leader on that list right now, in my humble opinion. so i believe that it's still too early to tell. martha: all right. maybe it'll be with herman cain. mr. cain -- >> you never know. [laughter] martha: thank you very much. good to see you as always. bill: jenna lee standing by, "happening now" rolls your way in a couple minutes. how are you, jenna? jenna: hi there, bill. congressman darrell issa is here to break some news on the security of the health care web site. that'll be at the top of the hour. also new reports of technical issues for both the national healthcare.gov web site and for the web site that serves the state of washington. so we'll dig deeper into that. also there's been some who warn there may be with a doctor shortage under obamacare, but one of our guests begs to differ we'll explain, coming up. bill: jenna, see you then, top of the hour. here you go, what scientists say

they found on the red planet that may have links to our own ancient past. whoa. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ bill: nasa's mars rover curiosity making an amazing discovery, the remnants of a freshwater lake that could have supported life three and a half billion years ago around the same time that life first emerged here on planet earth. mike wall, senior writer, space.com, how you doing, mike, in san francisco? you were at the conference yesterday, what do you think of this announcement, mike? >> well, yeah, i mean, i think it's pretty exciting. it's not the first evidence curiosity has actually found of

a potentially habitable environment on mars, a place that could have supported life, but it sort of broadens what we know about that environment, and this is a pretty big lake. it was about 30 be miles long by 3 miles wide and shallow, but they're saying this could have lasted for hundreds of millions of dollars, this calm lake. bill: and they compared it to like the finger lakes in upstate new york, kind of of that shape and teal. >> right. bill: but but if it was three and a half billion years ago, what is the parallel with what was happening on planet earth then, and why is that important? >> well, it's pretty interesting, yeah. that's about the time that the first life forms started emerging here on earth, that's what scientists think. we have the first evidence of the first microbes on earth about 3.8 billion years ago, so that rough period is when earth's life first started getting a foothold. it may just be a quince deposition, and it's also -- we have to secrecy -- stress, they

haven't found evidence of life forms on mars, it just potentially could have supported life there. it's just an interesting parallel that there were places on mars where it could have happened too. bill: so the rover keeps going with. i mean, curiosity's been an extraordinary thing for nasa. expensive; but extraordinary what it's discovered. how would you rate the news of this week with what curiosity's done so far, mike? >> i would say it's, yeah, it's pretty exciting. curiosity announced last march or the science team announced this past martha they had found -- past martha they had found a place, so this isn't the first, but it's sort of laying the foundation for what that environment could have looked like, and what's really exciting, i think, is they're saying this environment could have lasted for 100 million years or many. that's a really long time. that's conceivably enough time for life to get going and thrive and replicate and evolve.

we don't know, obviously. we're going to have to send some more missions to mars to see if that actually did happen. bill: and tailgate. that's kind of a theme we're going with today. thank you, mike, kidding on this. mikewall in san francisco. martha: all right. well, remember when we were told that pre-existing conditions didn't matter under obamacare? now it's turning out that that could be a lie. we're going to tell you what we're talking about there. a new report finding that the very sick this some cases are being discouraged from signing up for obamacare. we're going to take a look into this. we'll be with be right back.

bill: this is kind of cool, right? if you stayed up late last night, megyn kelly on the late-night show circuit. is that what they call it? not really. but she was with jay leno. >> one of the most contentious a few times with anthony weiner. >> okay. >> okay? he used to come on the show, he was so full of hubris and so

sort of in your face. and after the whoa thing happened, by the way he kept having meltdowns while i was on maternity leave which ticked me off. i wanted to cover that. i couldn't believe the hubris he had. if you were walking around with that kind of secret and national news, wouldn't you sort of dial it back a little bit? you would be a little on eggshells? >> a little. >> i don't know. [laughter] >> he wasn't. >> when anthony weaner is in your face it is a whole different meaning. bill: that is why leno is leno. i have no idea what you're talking about. martha: no, no. shoe look great. she looked totally at home. she does a fantastic job. wonderful. bill: we have to run here. make it a great day of the you will go tailgate, right? martha: absolutely. if it is tuesday it is

tailgating. bill: snowing outside it is your kind of weather. martha: exactly. have a great day everybody. we'll see you back here tomorrow. "happening now" starts right now. jenna: breaking news on today's top headlines and brand new stories you will see here first. jon: the latest from the newlywed murder trial. a montana woman accused of pushing her new husband off a cliff to his death. what prosecutors are now saying about the couple's relationship. the future is here now. researchers use nano medicine to treat infections. closer look at technology that could stop drug resistant bacteria in its tracks. >> >> also an abduction caught on tape. police release the video in hopes of finding the victim. it is all "happening now." jon: and good morning to you. a messy tuesday in new york. i'm jon scott. >> hi everybody. great to see you. i'm jenna lie.